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Access signage at the Mastermind store at Yonge/Lawrence in Toronto. (Nick Kozak / for the Toronto Star)

Mastermind's service dog signage.

The Beijing 2008 Paralympics Access Symbol.

That’s the challenge Lieutenant Governor David Onley is presenting to post secondary students in his quest for an improved and more inclusive accessibility symbol for the world.

Inspired by alternatives symbols — such as the sign he saw in Beijing during the 2008 Paralympic Games — Onley thinks students can come up with an updated symbol to replace the current stick figure in a wheelchair.

“They had humanized the figure to have something of a face with two eyes and a helmet, as well as the figure being in full motion,” Onley says. “You immediately had a different impression. You knew this was for people who have accessibility issues, but it was no longer a stick figure.”

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“Over 97 per cent of the population of disabled persons in Canada, the United States and everywhere don’t use wheelchairs or electric scooters, yet they do have a definable disability,” Onley says.

Onley convinced Sara Diamond, president of the Ontario College of Art and Design University, to create an international contest to improve the current symbol, making it more inclusive. Only about 3 per cent of people with disabilities use a mobility device, he says.

Diamond was immediately intrigued.

“It seemed like an amazing opportunity to be able to rethink a symbol that has been really valuable and has transformed access for disabled people, but also limits in many ways how disability is represented,” she says.

The symbol, designed by Susanne Koefoed, a Danish graphic design student, and modified with the addition of a head by Karl Montan, was introduced in 1968 when wheelchair accessibility was entering the public’s consciousness. It was adopted as a global standard, a copyrighted image of the International Commission on Technology and Accessibility. Onley, who has used a wheelchair since being struck with childhood polio, remembers the shift.

“All of a sudden there were places to park, the odd place that had a ramp or an accessible door, the symbol was there,” Onley says. “It was a real sign of liberation.

“That was great – back then.”

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A trip to Mastermind Toys, on Yonge St., showed Onley alternative symbols. The store has one sign that welcomes service animals and another with a wheelchair in motion and the words “Free Wheel’in!”

He did some research and thinks it’s time for a fresh look.

New York City adopted a new accessibility symbol earlier this year, with a figure wheeling in motion. But it’s still a stick figure, Onley says. “It’s not human, it’s an it,” he says.

The contest’s aim is to update and broaden the idea of who should be recognized as having a disability and effectively capture that as a symbol that can be understood across cultures, Diamond says.

The contest, open to post-secondary students around the world, closes Oct. 25. A jury will select three finalists, whose designs will be unveiled on Nov. 1 by Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, (and wife of Prince Edward).

The final designs will be presented to the International Standards Organization for consideration.

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